MISCELLANY. 



631 



Pennsylvania. By Joseph G. Eichardson, 

 M. D. Philadelphia : Lippincott, 1871. 



Juries and Physicians on Questions of 

 Insanity. By R. S. Guernsey, Esq., of the 

 New York Bar 



Organization and Constitution of the 

 American Health Association. New York, 

 1872. 



Report on the Water-Supply of the City 

 of Rochester, New York. 



Twenty-fourth Annual Report of the In- 

 diana Hospital for the Insane. 



Biennial Catalogue of the University of 

 South Carolina, 1871-'72. 



MISCELLANY. 



Antiquity of Civilization, II. Oppert 

 read an essay at the Brussels Congress, to 

 show, from the astronomical observations 

 of the Egyptians and Assyrians, that 11,542 

 years before our era man existed on the 

 earth at such a stage of civilization as to be 

 able to take note of astronomical phenom- 

 ena, and to calculate with considerable ac- 

 curacy the length of the year. The Egyp- 

 tians, says he, calculated by cycles of 1,460 

 years zodiacal cycles, as they were called. 

 Their year consisted of 365 days, which 

 caused them to lose one day in every four 

 solar years, and, consequently, they would 

 attain their original starting-point again 

 only after 1,460 years (365 x 4). There- 

 fore the zodiacal cycle ending in the year 

 139 of our era commenced in the year 1322 

 B. c. On the other hand, the Assyrian 

 cycle was 1,805 years, or 22,325 lunations. 

 An Assyrian cycle began 712 B. c. The 

 Chaldeans state that between the deluge 

 and their first historic dynasty there was a 

 period of 39,180 years. Now, what means 

 this number? It stands for 12 Egyptian 

 zodiacal cycles plug 12 Assyrian lunar cy- 

 cles. 



Zodiacal Cycle. 



1,460 



1,322 



Lunar Cycle. 

 ... 1,805 

 ... 712 



12 X 1,460=17,520) _ 39) 



180 



12 x 1,805 = 21,660 

 These two modes of calculating time are 

 in agreement with each other, and were 

 known simultaneously to one people, the 

 Chaldeans. Let us now build up the series 

 of both cycles, starting from our era, and 

 the result will be as follows : 



2,732 

 4,242 

 5,702 

 7,102 

 8,622 

 10,032 

 11,542 



. 2,517 

 . 4,322 

 . 6,127 

 . 7,933 

 . 9,737 

 .11,542 



At the year 11542 b. c. the two cycles 

 came together, and consequently they had 

 on that year their common origin in one 

 and the same astronomical observation. 



A Plant-Battery.- Under the heading 

 " Arceuthobium shedding its Seed," L. A. 

 M., in the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical 

 Club, gives the following account of what 

 deserves to be called a vegetable mitrail- 

 leuse: "I visited the swamp in Warrens- 

 burg, the first week in October. I found 

 its female plants of Arceuthobium nearly 

 all gone. Every effort that I made to cut 

 twigs from the matted clumps, where the 

 colonies of these strange parasites grow, 

 brought them down in showers. Fearing 

 that I should fail to get plants with full 

 seed-vessels, I picked a single plant with 

 vessels much swollen. While holding it 

 gently between my thumb and finger, to ob- 

 serve it more closely, I felt the tiniest recoil 

 of the capsule, and the seed struck me a 

 smart blow in the face. I gathered an- 

 other, and another, and each pretty little 

 bomb went off with a force that must have 

 carried it several feet away. The seed 

 flies out of the base of the capsule, instead 

 of the top; but its position on the plant 

 makes that the top, as, when ripe, the ves- 

 sels hang with the true summit turned 

 downward. I found the seeds and empty 

 seed-vessels lodged all about on the 

 branches. The plants which have ripened 

 seed fall off nearly all together : those which 

 have not blossomed, or have failed to be 

 fertilized, probably remain for another year. 

 When the seeds are being sown, there must 

 be quite a brisk bombardment going on for 

 several days. Isolated colonies of Arceu- 

 thobium in forests may have been planted 

 by seed adhering to the feet of birds." 



Government Tekgraphy. The first num- 

 ber of the London Telegraphic Journal, in 

 a leading article on Government telegraphv. 



